Kudos to The Wall Street Journal for Promoting Coding for Girls and Boys

The above video features The Wall Street Journal’s Geoffrey A. Fowler talking with two young children working on the new Lego Boost (turns regular Legos into robots). The video accompanies his July 26, 2017 “Personal Technology” print article “Young Coders Bring Lego Bricks to Life.”

As a long-time feminist, what is most exciting to me about the video and the article is that both a girl and a boy are featured. Finally we’re beginning to see more visual depictions of females (of all ages) involved in tech occupations.

In the book NEUROMARKETING by Patrick Renvoise and Christophe Morin the authors explain that the primitive part of our brain responds better to visual images than words. This is because visual understanding preceded language understanding by some hugely unimaginable time period.

And apparently this is why a photo captures our attention in ways that words cannot. Thus seeing a female talk about coding is more impactful than reading about a female coding. And role models to encourage female interest in coding skills are very important.

The Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media (“If she can see it, she can be it”) promotes portraying females in equality roles. Watch this video from her organization:

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller) has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the author of fiction and nonfiction books/ebooks. Phyllis is available by skype for book group discussions and may be reached at pzmiller@gmail.com